This invention relates generally to a merchandising machine for dispensing a particular item when an appropriate amount of money is deposited therein and, more particularly, to a merchandising machine that may receive large denominations of bills.
Electronically operated vending or merchandising machines for dispensing various articles at various prices are known in the art. In a typical vending machine, a coin mechanism and/or bill acceptor communicate with a control which permits delivery of a particular item when a sum of money totaling at least the purchase price of that item has been accepted by the bill acceptor and/or the coin mechanism. It is generally desirable that in addition to providing the item to a purchaser upon deposit of money into the machine, the vending machine also provides change for the amount that the purchaser deposited into the machine in excess of the purchase price of the item. In order to provide change, additional coins holders are required within the vending machine to keep the appropriate coins such that the exact change may be returned to the consumer upon purchase of the desired item.
A user of a conventional vending machine may input a dollar bill and press the coin return lever and get change, depending on how the machine is set up. Sometimes a machine returns the dollar bill, and sometimes it takes the bill and stacks it immediately into a secure bill box and, if the user presses a coin return lever, the user receives change instead of the bill. However, the machine will pay change out of the coin holders, which is problematic in that it depletes the coin holders, making the machine quickly enter an "exact change only" mode of operation. This is undesirable from an operator's standpoint, since operators do not want to turn away potential customers simply because the machines are without the correct change.
Typically, the coin holders in coin mechanisms used in vending machines are cylindrical tubes integral to the coin mechanism, which is mounted on an interior side of the service door of the vending machine. A number of these tubes may be positioned side-by-side of one another, each one dispensing a different coin so as to provide the exact change. For example, one cylinder may dispense nickels, while another dispenses dimes, quarters, or the like. While such a system is capable of providing the exact change to a consumer, the small size of the coin-holding cylinders may limit the items to be sold within the vending machine to small inexpensive items, and further may lead to the vending machine requiring service more often, as the supply of coins within the coin holders become depleted.
A typical coin-holder is compact so as to fit along the front panel of the service door, and typically holds a rather small volume of coins therein. For example, a coin holder for quarters may hold only 80 quarters within the coin holding cylinder. Therefore, the vending machine must be serviced on a regular basis to prevent the coin supply from being depleted. While depletion of the coin supply may not result in the vending machine being completely disabled, it does lead to an "exact change only" display being activated, as the vending machine is no longer capable of providing exact change back to the consumer. Activation of the "exact change only" light is very undesirable, as most consumers carry with them a number of one or five dollar bills or the like, but do not typically carry exact change to cover, for example, an 85 cent item. The result potentially being a loss of sale to the vending machine owner.
Furthermore, because of the small size of the coin holders of a typical vending machine, bill acceptors provided with such vending machines are typically limited to be able to accept only one dollar bills and maybe five dollar bills therein, as larger denominations of bills would substantially deplete the coin supply in the coin holders. Such a restriction on the denomination of bills that may be accepted within the machine may limit the machine to be only able to sell inexpensive items that may be purchased by a five dollar bill or less. Also, by not allowing a consumer to deposit a larger denomination of bills, the vending machine may lose additional sales when a consumer only has, for example, a ten dollar bill or greater available at the time they wish to purchase an item from the vending machine.
An additional concern with conventional vending machines is that they generally may only be used to dispense items and not change alone when the appropriate amount of coins or dollar bills are inserted therein. If a consumer needs additional coins for purchasing additional items, or for use in a different machine, such as a coin operated laundry machine or a gaming machine or the like, a separate bill changing machine may be required that contains a bulk hopper full of a single type of coin. These changing machines may accept larger denomination bills, and may provide large quantities of change to the user of the machine. However, while a changing machine may hold substantially more coins than a typical vending machine, so as to avoid depleting the supply of coins as quickly, an owner of a vending machine generally does not want to purchase a separate changing machine to locate in an area where the vending machine is already present. Not only may the cost to purchase the additional changing machine be prohibitive of providing the machine by a vending machine, but space constraints at the desired location of the vending machine may also prohibit placing an additional changing machine in the vicinity of the vending machine.